Ruby Smears
by Leighlei
Summary: Craig meets a new girl... R&R please.
1. The new girl

"Students, we have a new student today, she just moved to Canada from the U.S." Mr. Radditch beckoned to someone outside the door, and then the girl came in. "Her name is Ruby Carter." She turned to look at the class, cocking her head, her hair was long and dyed black, braided into cornrows and tied back in a tight ponytail. 

"What a freak..." Paige mumbled, obviously commenting on Ruby's outlandishly goth style-- the extremely baggy black pants, the teeny, curve-hugging black top, the fishnet undershirt. "She sure could give you a run for your money..." She whispered to Ash, who was eyeing her with a bit of a jealous melodrama. 

"Do you want to tell the class anything about yoursef?"

"I'm female." She growled. There was a cluster of nervous titters. Radditch was giving her a look that she obviously didn't recognize as being angry. "Can I sit down now?"

"Uh, yeah... there's a seat, right there next to Craig." He motioned, she smirked in a way that could have been interpereted as thankful, and slid into the seat, giving Craig a once over with icy blue eyes surrounded with makeup dark as coaldust. Craig glanced at her, a bit wary, and cleared his throat, returning his wide eyes to the empty page in his notebook that was resting on his desk. He sighed.

"Scary." She dubbed over his silence, unsmiling but seemingly amused. He lifted an eyebrow at her as class began, the monotonous drone of English, and she did smile then, revealing icy-white teeth, straight and perfect, the canines slightly pointed to produce the effect of fangs. "I'm Ruby." She whispered, acting stupid.

"Ms. Carter, I would appreciate it if you kept the flirting to a minimum in my class." He barked. She saluted him.

"Yes sir!" Another angry look. Craig cleared his throat and scribbled something down on the blank page in his notebook, flipping it around so she could see;

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I'm Craig.

She smiled, pulling a pen out of one of her pockets and writing back;

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No shit.

He responded;

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Where did you move from?

Her reply;

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Washington D.C. ... Where they sell crack. :)

This was awarded with a chuckle and another scribble;

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Can I get your number... in case I want to buy some?

Smirking, the girl paused, her pen poised, and then wrote;

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It's expensive... 

Craig grinned;

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I'm sure it will be worth it.

After a moment, Ruby shook her head and complied with her number. Beneath it she wrote;

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Call me tonight and maybe we can chill. 

He nodded, pleased, and then they returned their attention to the teacher.


	2. Evening meeting

The phone rang.

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Stop ringing.

It didn't stop. Three. Four. Five rings. 

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Stop ringing, blast it! I'm in no mood to freakin' chat.

Nine rings. The caller knew she was home. Sighing, she rolled over onto her side and lifted the phone, rocking over onto her back again and putting it against her ear. She managed to force a somewhat-normal voice out of her body.

"Hello?" Okay, so somewhat-normal-for-a-girl-with-no-life voice. She sounded like a cross between a lush and a frog. And a girl in a mental ward. And-

"Hello, is this Ruby?" 

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Arrrrgggh. A boy. And I sound like a mutant.

"Let me check." She sat up and looked down at her lower half. The baggy black pants, the tight black fishnet top that stopped just short of her bellybutton. She couldn't see the black tank top underneath that because it just covered her larger upper-half parts, but she knew it was there. She flopped back down. "Yeah. It's me."

"You had to check?" He laughed. Too bad she didn't know who he was. Bother. Always the little things, keeping her from smiling.

"Sometimes I forget." 

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No seriously. I do.

"Ha ha ha…" Cute.

"Who is this?"  
"Ha—O-oh! It's Craig! From English." Ah. Craig from English. Craig… hot… good…She wiped her eyes and cleared her throat. 

"Hey. What's up?" Ruby sounded a lot more human now.

"Nothing… I was wondering if maybe you wanted to hang out or something?"

"Now?"

"Yeah. You live just down the street from Sean and I. I could walk to your place…"

"No!" The word burst forth faster than she could contain it. Craig sounded stunned, even over the phone.

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Jesus, Ruby, you're a freakin' FREAK…

"Do you want to meet me at the corner? We could… go for a walk."

"The…? Oh yeah… right…" She calmed down, as long as he didn't see her house. She nodded to herself, sitting up. "I'll meet you there in ten minutes, All right?"

"Sounds good."

They hung up. Ruby pulled one sleeve down over the wet gashes on her right arm, already clotting, they would be invisible beneath the tight making of the fabric. Slowly, she rose, her left hand groped the bedspread for her razor blade—still drying—and she let her fist hang idle at her side for a moment. A deep feeling of regret surged inside of her, but she headed it off with a resolute numbness. Dropping the offensive, accursed thing into the garbage, she tiptoed past her parents' room, crept down the stairs, and slipped out of the door.

When he came to the corner she was sitting on the curb, her head was bent, her back hunched, shoulders resting on her knees. As Ruby heard his approach she turned her face towards him, but it's pale depths were still obscured by the black braids that hung from her cornrows. 

"Hey." She said, a sweet smile spreading over her.


	3. Months later A fight broke out and

****

[Note to reader: This chapter takes place several months after the abrupt ending of the last, in which it was late summer (The beggining of school.) Now it is late fall, and Ruby and Craig have become close friends. She remains an outcast; her only other friend being Sean, and no one has found out about her cutting. There are several 'Memories' that take place in this chapter that might seem a bit unresolved or confusing-- but they are simply things they are remembering that happened between the last chapter and this one. If I get a resounding "YOU SUCK!" for skipping around, I will write a filler chapter, but I was bored with where the fic was, so I skipped ahead. If there are any questions, please, submit them in a review, and I will do my best to fix this fic in accordance. Anyway, just have fun, here is chapter 3! (P.S.- Sorry for the shortness of CH. 1!)] 

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"You and I in a little toy shop,

Buy a bag of balloons with the money we've got.

Set them free at the break of Dawn, 

'Till one-by-one,

They were gone."

Twang. Twang. Twiiing.

"Shit." Ruby plucked at the faulty string on her electric guitar again, and once more it responded with an offensive 'Twiiing.' She sighed. She couldn't get anything to go right in this stupid new high school, even though it was fall, now. "Godddamn." Slipping the neckstrap over her head and putting her instrument down on a chair, she looked at it, contemplating. Running her fingers through her hair (Now out of the braids and hanging in wavy sections past her shoulders) and growling in her throat, she turned away from it after a moment, and began to rant. "Stupid friggen' school guitar, dammit! How the hell am I supposed to practice with this SHIT?" There was the sound of running, voices in the hall. She had forgotten there were other kids still at Degrassi, and that the mike was still on. 

"Dude, I'm SERIOUS, She's TOTALLY insane!"

"Come on, Spin, she can't be THAT bad-"

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"No forgiveness!

You're no Martyr!

Sell yourself!

Make it true!

There's no price tag,

On my conscience!

Here's your answer!

It's still fu--"

"Uh, ex-cuse me, hon, but uh, could you please stop that unbearable wailing? We're trying to practice somewhere within a twelve mile radius, and we don't need the soundtrack from 'A friendless addict' playing in the background." Paige. Ooh, she hated that snotty bitch. She was wearing a cheerleading outfit. A. Cheerleading. Outfit. Ruby sneered.

"Oh, well, I figured you could use some real music instead of that peppy shit you're always bouncing around to." Paige smiled bitterly.

"Hon, that's not music. That's a freakish loser screaming into a microphone." She flipped her hair over her shoulder, turned on her heel. That was it. That as friggen' it, no way was Paige going to act like she wasn't even human.

"Come over here and say that to my face you slutty Canuck." Paige froze, did a slow-motion 180 to look at Ruby from across the auditorium.

"WHAT did you just call me?" She hissed.

"A slutty Canuck. But really, it's not just your broken hymen, it's the way it shows no matter WHAT you WEAR, because every Goddamn one of your outfits is so fucking small that I doubt even a four year old could fit into them. AND they're hideous, to add insult to... well, sluttiness. " Ruby jumped down off the stage. Her combat boots made a thudding noise. She cocked her head, bared her teeth in a challenging smile. Paige was on her in an instant, a flurry of fists and nails, furious. Fortunately, Paige was an inexperienced boxer, maybe because she was a cheerleader, but every blow was only against Ruby's shoulders and arms-- mostly because Paige was at least a full head shorter than her opponent, and each was a bit less than agony. Ruby was taken aback, but just for a moment, and then her fist hit Paige's jaw at an upward angle as her arm extended in a lightning-quick snap. The cheerleader stumbled back, holding her injured face, and Ruby beat her chest once. "Come ON, bitch, where are your high-kicks?! Ra-Ra, Sis-boom--" Paige jumped at her, and Ruby stumbled back, pushed her away. The cheerleader came again, and was struck with another hook, this one hit her square in the eye. And then Paige sank to the ground, hands over her face, muffled sobs seeping through them. For a moment, the rage was all Ruby felt, and then remorse, pity. She couldn't stay in there. Her fingers arched through her hair, clawed at it, as she first strode, and then ran from the auditorium, leaving the crying squad leader behind. She was hyperventilating by the time she got outiside, her chest rising and falling in spasmodic shudders. Ruby sank onto the bench, wringing her hands, trying to calm the crazed racing of her heart, trembling from the torrent of adrenaline rushing through her veins.

"Ruby?" She gasped, uncharacteristically startled, and jumped a bit in her seat. Looking up, she saw Sean, basketball under one arm, a concerned, confused look on his face.

"Sean." She said, and that was all she could think of.

"What happened, are you Okay?" She blinked, let out a short rush of air;

"Nngh." Her arms hurt a little, like they were sore from lifting weights. Bruised, she assumed, from Paige's enraged thumping. "I- ugh...nngh... Er." Sean lifted one quizzical eyebrow, "Paige and I... there was a fight." Ruby rose, her shaking had gone from violent spasming to mild trembling, she could walk home now. "She's in the... in the auditorium... I am... going home now. Bye." Sean, whos'e face had taken on a more urgent expression, used his free hand to grab her shoulder.   
"What did you do to her?" He demanded. She jerked her shoulder free, glaring in a dazed fashion. Behind him, the doors to the school flew open, and a handful of teen cheerleaders came gushing out, Paige among them, angry. Ruby gestured, Sean glanced over his shoulder, then back at her, right into her eyes.

"Hey, if you ever need to..." 

"Hey Freak! I'm going to make sure you never set foot in Degrassi again!" Paige hollered, rage in her voice. Ruby sneered. 

"Whatever Bitch." Was all she could manage, and then she whirled, taking off at a pace a bit faster than a jog, trying to outrun the unfixable mistake she had just made.

Craig was sitting on her porch steps when she came striding up the walk, cigarette smoldering between two fingers, the look on her face darker than usual, she caught sight of him and then averted her gaze, fixed her eyes on the ground. She took another drag from her smoke exhaled into the dusk, and then flicked it onto the sidewalk, grinding it out with her boot. He rose.

"Why are you here?" She asked without looking at him, her voice flat. "I'm really not in the mood to talk." Ruby's tone was deep, rumbling, almost as if she had given up.

"Here." He handed her a small stack of photographs as he brushed past her, gruff. She promptly grabbed him by the nape of the neck, pulled him back, and put her arms around his shoulders. Ruby wasn't prone to displays of affection, but obviously he didn't know this, because he pulled away, turning around to look at her.  
"Sean called me from the school." He muttered, his face blank but sad. "Said you got in a fight with Paige, that you were probably going to get suspended, at least." He didn't notice her trembling, all she could see was anguish in him. She looked at the ground.

"She had it coming to her." She mumbled. 

"Ruby..."

"What? Nobody cares. I'm a stupid friendless American! Suspension? HA! I was expelled in America!"

"Well, maybe they should expel you here, too, then." Craig sighed. "There is no getting to you is there?" And then he left her with the photographs and her scars. She hadn't cut since that day when she saw him on the corner. She hadn't felt the need... he had always been there. She bit her lip and looked down at the stack of pictures in her hand...

"Craig..." She whispered, flipping through them. All of them were of herself, practicing on her guitar, candid leaving school or at the mall, a few of them were of her and Sean, or her and Craig, the only two people she really spoke to outside of school. The very last photograph in the stack was of a rainstorm, and there she was, dancing in the rain. He had seen her that summer's eve, running and twirling, he had seen her when no one had. Ruby Carter closed her eyes against bitter tears, and then she went inside.


End file.
